Subhash K Jha, in a new This Day That Year, revisits 1998’s Train to Pakistan as Rajit Kapoor relives the shooting of the traumatic tale of partition.
Pamela Rook’s screen adaptation of Khushwant Singh’s Partition classic Train To Pakistan almost never happened. Author Khushwant Singh had lost all hopes of it ever being filmed. Many eminent directors including Satyajit Ray, Akira Kurosawa and Merchant-Ivory had shown an interest. But they backed off. The then home minister, Bansi Lal, refused to grant permission as he thought it was too sensitive a subject to reopen since the wounds of Partition had not yet healed. Khushwant Singh had given up in despair when Digvijay Singh, who was the then chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, not only gave permission to make the film in his state but also offered financial assistance for the project.
Pamela Rooks first read the novel at 17. She was to play the pivotal role of Nooran in Ismail Merchant film, which never took off.
Rajit Kapoor who played one of the key characters in Pamela Rooks’ screen adaptation says, “Well, I remember it was a logistical nightmare. I don’t know how that film was completed. There were too many production issues and that still is still part of memory. The most wonderful thing is I made two great friends, were still friends of mine, actor Divya Dutta and my friend Richard, who also became very close because of this film. Divya was one of the assistants.”
Rajit completed all of his work within two days. “I think somewhere, if I remember, I shot most of my scenes all within 36 hours on the last day of shooting during the day right through the night and then had to take the train at 5 a.m. to Delhi from Chandigarh. But somehow we managed to complete the film.I always wondered after reading the book how this would turn out.But never imagined that people would really remember this film.I mean, what Khushwant Singh wrote actually is amazing.It’s for the viewer to really judge how it turned out.”
